Dominican Republic | It was the enthusiasm of a fellow pastor that encouraged Brent Cloyd to lead his association on a recent mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
Cloyd, director of missions for Greater Wabash Association, first heard about the church planting efforts of a Dominican leader, Pastor Ramon Ortiz, through his friend Keith Halsey, who pastors First Baptist in Raymond.
“Eight years ago [Halsey] met Pastor Ortiz and found him to be a man who was not just a good pastor but a man with a great missionary heart who desired to start churches,” Cloyd said. In February, the DOM took four others from his association to work with Ortiz. They shared the gospel in the communities where the pastor is ministering and worshiped in local churches. Cloyd and Scott Lambrich, also from Greater Wabash, even had the opportunity to help baptize four new believers.
Cloyd said he hopes the association will participate in future trips to the DR to help believers who feel led to plant their lives there. The Illinois group visited a mountainous, economically depressed region of the country where IBSA will send a medical team this June.
“We are hopeful that there are going to be other opportunities in this area soon and I for one am praying that our association will have and take advantage of joining in this work,” Cloyd wrote in a recent newsletter to Greater Wabash churches. “There are opportunities for us to partner with churches in the Dominican in ways that may seem small to us but which are large to them. I hope you will join me in praying for how God might use us in this nation.”